Bulletin № 019BittersGentiana lutea
How House Bitters Are Actually Made
Not a recipe card. A walk through what each step of making bitters is for, so you can build your own and understand why it tastes the way it does.
3 min read
The Library
The complete index
Every bulletin the Institute has filed, newest first. Or narrow the field to a single line of study.
Bulletin № 020BrewingHumulus lupulus
Why the Water Made the Beer Before Anyone Knew Why
Burton brews pale ale, Pilsen brews pale lager, Dublin brews stout. For centuries each town thought it had a knack. What it actually had was the water under its feet.
3 min read
Bulletin № 021CocktailsComposito miscela
What Balance Actually Means in a Glass
Bartenders say a drink is balanced as if it were obvious. It is not one fixed point but a tension you tune, and the levers all pull on each other.
3 min read
Bulletin № 016IngredientsMateria prima
The Twist Is Oils, Not Juice
A lemon gives a drink two completely different things from two different places. The juice is acid and sugar. The peel is aromatic oil, and that is the part you smell before you ever taste the drink.
3 min read
Bulletin № 017CocktailsComposito miscela
Stir or Shake, and Why It Is Never a Coin Toss
Both methods chill and dilute a drink. The choice between them is really a choice about texture and clarity, and the old rules hold up for good reasons.
4 min read
Bulletin № 018HistoryMemoria potionis
What Prohibition Did to the Drink
The thirteen dry years did not stop Americans from drinking. They changed what was in the glass, who was mixing it, and where the good bartenders went.
3 min read
Bulletin № 012IngredientsMateria prima
A Pinch of Salt in the Glass
A few grains of salt, or a couple of drops of saline, can fix a drink that tasted thin or harshly bitter. The reason is wired into how the tongue reports taste.
3 min read
Bulletin № 013Barrel AgingQuercus alba
The Angel's Share, and Who Actually Pays It
Every year a barrel quietly loses a few percent of its contents to the air. Whether that loss makes the whiskey stronger or weaker comes down to one thing: humidity.
3 min read
Bulletin № 014CocktailsComposito miscela
The Spirit-Forward Template, From Manhattan to Negroni
A handful of the most famous drinks ever made are the same drink wearing different clothes. Learn the three-part skeleton and you can read the whole family at a glance.
3 min read
Bulletin № 015HistoryMemoria potionis
Who Invented the Old Fashioned
Nobody invented it, because it was the original drink the word "cocktail" named. The name came later, when people started asking for the simple build the old-fashioned way.
3 min read
Bulletin № 009GlasswareVitrum potatorium
The Coupe, the Nick and Nora, and What the Glass Actually Does
Some of what a cocktail glass does to a drink is real physics. Some of it is theater. Here is how to tell which is which before you buy the shelf.
4 min read
Bulletin № 010CocktailsComposito miscela
The Sour: One Template, Half the Canon
A Daiquiri, a Margarita, and a Whiskey Sour are the same drink with the parts swapped. Learn the skeleton and you stop memorizing recipes.
3 min read
Bulletin № 011FermentationSaccharomyces cerevisiae
Wild Yeast or Pitched Yeast, and Why You Choose
Pitch a known strain and you get a clean, repeatable beer. Leave the wort open to the air and you get something nobody can promise twice. The whole decision is control against character.
3 min read
Bulletin № 007TastingSensoria gustus
You Taste With Your Nose, Not Your Tongue
Pinch your nose, eat a jelly bean, and it turns to sweet nothing. Let go and the flavor floods in. That gap is where almost all of tasting actually lives.
3 min read
Bulletin № 008Barrel AgingQuercus alba
What the Char Actually Does to a Barrel
Setting fire to the inside of an oak barrel is not theater. The black layer does three different jobs at once, and most of a whiskey's flavor depends on getting it right.
3 min read
Bulletin № 006BittersGentiana lutea
Why a Few Dashes of Bitters Fix a Whole Drink
Bitters are not an ingredient so much as a corrective lens. Here is what those dashes are actually doing to your tongue.
3 min read
Bulletin № 005BrewingSaccharum densitas
What the Hydrometer Knows
A weighted glass float and two readings are all it takes to know how strong your beer is. The trick is understanding what the numbers actually measure.
2 min read
Bulletin № 004VermouthArtemisia absinthium
Vermouth Is Wine That Went to Finishing School
It is wine, fortified with spirit and seasoned with botanicals. It is also the bottle most people are quietly mistreating in a warm cupboard.
2 min read
Bulletin № 003Shrubs & SyrupsAcetum fructus
The Shrub: Drinking Vinegar That Predates Your Refrigerator
Before cold storage, people kept fruit by drowning it in sugar and vinegar. The result turned out to be delicious, which is the best kind of accident.
3 min read
Bulletin № 002FermentationSaccharomyces cerevisiae
Yeast Is Doing All the Work
You do not make beer or wine. Yeast does. Your whole job is to set the table and then get out of its way.
2 min read
Bulletin № 001HistoryMemoria potionis
A Short, Disputed History of the Word "Cocktail"
The first printed definition is older and stranger than you think, and nobody agrees on where the word came from. That is what makes it fun.
2 min read